The Civil War

What led to the Civil War?

• Continual division between the N/S• Compromise of 1850, Kansas/Nebraska Act, Harpers Ferry, Dred

Scott, Freeport Doctrine, Political Parties (expansion of slavery)

• Political Issues• Lincoln was elected President even though he was not on the ballot

in most southern states. Lincoln vowed to eliminated the EXPANSION of slavery.

• Secession• South Carolina left the Union on Dec. 20 1860 (followed by Miss.,

Florida, Alabama, Georgia, Texas, and Louisiana.• Formed a new government called the Confederate States of America

(Confederacy).• Jefferson Davis is the President of the Confederacy

First Shots of the Civil War

• Feb. of 1861, 7 states had left the Union• Fort Sumter—US fort located off of Charleston,

SC. Confederate soldiers began to surround the fort, demanded that the US troops inside give up.

• Lincoln chose to just leave the troops there until the Confederate (South) began to attack.

• April 12th 1861, Confederate troops fired upon the fort, the US army surrendered, not one person was killed.

Reaction of Ft. Sumter• The news of Ft. Sumter made people want to enlist in

the army. (In Iowa, 20 times the quota volunteered)• Virginia decided to leave the Union and join the

Confederacy.• Big loss of the Union because it had a lot of people, industry, and

most of the best generals.

• Arkansas, Tennessee, and North Carolina all left the Union as well (now making 11 in the Confederacy).

• Missouri, Kentucky, Delaware and Maryland chose to stay in the Union but had people fighting for both sides

Advantages

• Union Advantages: More men, factories, supplies, better RR, good leader in Abe

• Confederate Advantages: Cotton was needed by everyone, by far the best generals, strong military tradition, defend their homeland. Problem: They had bad leaders in their government.

Plans for Victory

• Union Plan (Anaconda Plan)1. Blockade the Southern Ports with the Navy

2. Sail down the Mississippi River, then cut the Confederacy in half.

3. Capture the Confederate capital of Richmond, Va.

• Confederate Plan—Survive as long as possible, wear the North down.

Bull Run

• First major battle of the Civil War. 30,000 soldiers from both sides met between Richmond and Washington DC.

• Most of the soldiers were very inexperienced.• Stonewall Jackson (Confederate General) was able

to keep his troops together long enough for reinforcements to come---this caused the North to retreat back towards Washington DC.

• People had shown up to watch the battle with picnic baskets, no one expected the South to win.

Northern Generals

• Lincoln chose George McClellan as the leader of the Union Army of the North. McClellan was very smart but lacked the “guts” to ever do anything.

• Ulysses S Grant—head of the Union Army in the South (invade through Tennessee and cut the Confederacy in half).

• Grant was an alcoholic and pretty much a failure in everything except for being a good military commander.

Shiloh

• Located in Tennessee. Grant’s troops were resting when they were surprised by thousands of Confederate troops.

• Grant was able to keep his troops somewhat together until reinforcements arrived the next day.

• Eventually they were able to push the Confederates back into Mississippi.

Results/Lessons from Shiloh

• 25,000 people were killed in the 2 day battle

• War was going to be very bloody, not a quick end like people had thought.

• Generals need to do a better job of scouting.

• The Confederacy lost a ton of their men and now were not able to keep Grant from cutting across the South.

Civil War on Water

• David Farragut—Union General that led a fleet down the Mississippi River to seize New Orleans. Very important!

• Ironclads—wooden ships that had metal armor on them. Good because they could withstand some cannon fire and wouldn’t burn as easily.

• Monitor and Merrimac were famous ironclads. The North had many more of them, they were the first real “ships.”

Other Inventions

• Rifle and minie ball were very important to the war. Rifle’s could be loaded faster and were much more accurate then muskets.

• Minie ball was more destructive than previous bullets (more like a real bullet).

• Both sides also had land mines and grenades, made the war much more deadly.

Problems for the North

• The North was not able to capture Richmond. McClellan was too cautious, he spent most of his time training and not attacking.

• Robert E Lee—main general of the Confederacy. He was very smart, creative and had been the top US general before the Civil War. He chose to remain loyal to his home state of Virginia.

War for the Capitals

• Lee and McClellan fought in a series of small battles in which McClellan was winning. However, McClellan retreated because he was afraid of Lee.

• Lee decided to chase McClellan towards Washington DC.

Antietam• One of McClellan’s men found Lee’s secret orders in a

cigar box. McClellan was able to attack Lee’s army when they were separated.

• The battle was the deadliest battle in American History. Over 26,000 troops died in one day (more than the Mexican American War and the War of 1812 combined!!)

• Confederate Army was almost destroyed, they retreated back to the South. McClellan could have followed and attack (which would have ended the war) but he didn’t do anything (too cautious).

• Lincoln was very mad at this and fired McClellan

The Politics of War

• Great Britain decided to remain neutral in the whole conflict. The South had hoped they would side with them because of the cotton demand. GB was able to get cotton from other places.

• More and more people in the North began to insist that Lincoln free the slaves. Initially, Lincoln was opposed to this, but he changed his mind.

Emancipation Proclamation

• Emancipation Proclamation—Freed the slaves in the South. This was done to hurt the Southern war effort and to make GB happy (ensure they won’t side with the South).

• It did not effect the actual fighting of the war that much BUT it did give the North a reason to fight (symbol of freedom).

• Confederates were very upset and became more determined to fight for their way of life.

Many oppositions to the war

• Lots of people were against the war. Lincoln was very harsh with people that went against the war.

• He waived the right of habeas corpus (right to a trial), seized telegraphs, and started to crack down on a lot of personal freedoms.

• Jefferson Davis did similar things in the South. • Copperheads—Northern Democrats who were

against the war and wanted peace with the South.

DRAFT

• Conscription—a draft that would force people to enlist in the army. Both the North and the South passed separate draft acts because most of the volunteers had died.

Rich Man’s War, Poor Man’s Fight

• Confederates: All able bodied men (18-35) except for those who could hire a sub or those how had more than 20 slaves.

• Union: White men (20-45). People in the North could hire subs to fight for them as well.

• NYC—many problems with poor/immigrants fighting for jobs. They did not want to fight for freeing the blacks because that would mean more competition for jobs. Huge riots in NYC that left 100’s dead.

African Americans

• African Americans began to serve with the North. High percentage. Over 180,000 volunteered.

• African American Problems• Could not advance beyond captain

• they had a high death rate because they were assigned the most dangerous jobs.

• Executed if caught by the Confederacy

Confederate Problems

• Problems in the South– Running out of food in the South, Union controlled

most of the food growing areas in the South

– Very high death rate, loss of man power

– Loss of slaves to work in the fields

– Union blockades of Southern Ports

• Got so bad that people: stole from others or traded cotton to the North for food.

Life in the North

• Good Things– Industry was booming because of the high demand for

goods

– Women worked in great numbers in Northern factories

• Bad Things– Business owners treated workers poorly and the quality

of product suffered (wanted to make money)

– Income tax was passed to make money in the North

Daily Life on the Battle Field

• Soldiers: • poor living conditions, • bad diets, • horrible medical care • not enough food.

• Nursing• North did a good job of training nurses. • Developed a system to treat and transport wounded soldiers and

taught people about sanitation.

– Clara Barton—nurse who showed how brave women can be (once had a bullet go through coat)

– 3,000 civil war nurses.

Prisons

• Worst possible place to be, horrible conditions• Andersonville—was the worst Confederate prison

camp. 33,000 prisoners were there, no food or shelter. They drank water from the same stream that was used for a sewer.

• Northern prison camps were not any better. They had better food/sanitation, but most prisoners died because of the horrible conditions

• About 15% of all prisoners died.

The North Takes Charge

• Chancellorsville—Lee was able to win the battle by outsmarting Joseph Hooker (McClellan’s replacement)

• Only good thing for the North was that Stonewall Jackson was killed in this battle by one of his own troops.

• Lee decided that the time was right to take a risk and try to invade the North. (Pennsylvania)

Gettysburg

• The most important battle of the Civil War• Lee’s troops ran into a few brigades of

Union troops led by Buford.• Meade (new head Union general) took the

rest of his army and took defensive positions in the hills around Gettysburg.

• Lee knew that he needed to force the North to surrender!

Gettysburg—Day 2

• 90,000 Union troops vs 75,000 Confederate troops.

• Lee ordered his troops to charge up the hills• They were initially successful but they were

eventually turned back by Chamberlain. • Chamberlain held off 3 charges and then

ordered a final bayonet charge to cause most of the Confederates to surrender

Gettysburg—Day 3

• Lee was convinced that one more day of attacks would break the Union Lines.

• General Pickett attacked the center of the Union lines (Pickett’s charge).

• Union soldiers were able to push the Confederates back…Confederates had lost the battle of Gettysburg.

Gettysburg--Results

• Over 3 days, Union lost 23,000 troops, the Confederacy lost 28,000.

• The Confederate Army would never be the same after this battle.

• Meade did not know how badly off the Confederate Army was, could have ordered a counterattack and caused a surrender (but he chose not to).

• Gettysburg Address—famous 2 minute speech by President Lincoln, told the people why they were fighting this war..to save America.

Other battles of 1863

• Vicksburg• —Grant was able to surround the city (which

was held by Confederate Army)• This was one of the last Confederate cities on

the Mississippi River.• Grant was able to force the Confederates to

give up Vicksburg on July 3, 1863. Now it would be easy to cut the Confederacy in half (Anaconda Plan #2)

Confederate Morale

• People in the South began to doubt if they could really win the war.

• Many soldiers left fighting and went home when they heard how bad things had gotten.

• Nobody was listening to Jefferson Davis and the Confederate Congress could not get along with each other

• Farmers were mad because they were asked to quit growing cash crops, etc..

New Changes

• Ulysses S Grant was appointed head of the Union Army by Abraham Lincoln.

• Grant appointed William Tecumseh Sherman to be head to the Union Army in the South.

• Both men believed in “total war”—which means making war against everyone and everything…win at all costs!

Grant’s Strategy

• Occupy Lee’s army all the time by continually attacking.

• Grant did not really care about how many men he lost because he could afford the loses, while the Confederacy could not.

• In 2 months, Grant lost nearly 60,000 men to Lee’s 32,000 (Cold Harbor, Wilderness, Fredericksburg)

Sherman’s strategy

• Sherman won the city of Atlanta, he then decided that he was going to go across Georgia and destroy everything. Sherman’s March to the Sea

• He wanted to make the people of Georgia “so sick of war that they would never do it again.”

• After arriving at Savannah, Sherman turned North to help Grant battle Lee.

Election of 1864

• Lincoln (Rep) ran for re-election against George McClellan (Dem).

• McClellan’s message was to stop the war immediately, he had a lot of support.

• As it got closer to the election, the North started to win more battles and people could see that they war was going to be over soon.

• This caused Lincoln to be re-elected as president.

Surrender

• Grant and Sherman began to surround Richmond (Confederate Capital)…Jefferson Davis and everyone else had left the city.

• A few days later, Grant met Lee at Appomattox Courthouse to go over the terms of surrender.

• Grant let all the Southerners go home, need to start rebuilding.

Legacy of the War

• After the Civil War, the federal government had supreme power, no state has ever threatened to leave again.

• National Bank Act—set up in 1863, gave the government more control over banks/interest rates.

• Industry boomed within the North, while the South was completely destroyed.

• Southern land was destroyed, livestock killed, no slaves to work anything.

Results of the War

• Economic Gap between the North and the South widened after the war. The South held only 17% of the Nation’s wealth.

• Death Toll: North 360,000 vs South (260,000)• Wounded: North (275,000) vs South (225,000)• 2.5 million people served in the Civil War (10%)

Other Issues

• Passed the 13th Amendment which said that neither slavery or involuntary solitude shall be allowed anywhere in America. This was hard for a lot of people in the North/South to accept.

• People moved everywhere after the Civil War. Some moved back home, moved west, or worked a profession that they had done during the War.

• Clara Barton became one of the founders of the Red Cross

`Lincoln’s Assassination

• Lincoln was assassinated on April 14th 1865. This was just 5 days after Lee surrendered to Grant.

• He was killed by a guy named John Wilkes Booth in Ford’s Theater in Washington DC.

• The question was: Now what would we do with our country???